Warning: include_once(/home/agitpropspace/agitpropspace.org/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-support/wordpress-support.php): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/agitpropspace/agitpropspace.org/wp-settings.php on line 206

Reclaimed Library at UCSD

From SignOn San Diego:

Students ‘reclaim’ UCSD library

Originally published December 5, 2011 at 1:59 p.m., updated December 5, 2011 at 5:38 p.m.

LA JOLLA — Students forced open the doors of a shuttered University of California San Diego library Monday and rushed inside, vowing to stay around the clock until the end of final exams Friday.

University police, who were on hand when students arrived at the library before 7 a.m., were pulled out of the area by administrators keen to avoid the kind of campus confrontations that have occurred recently, including the one at UC Davis last month when campus police sprayed nonviolent demonstrators with pepper spray.

And administrators said they will not seek to punish anyone for the break-in.

“We asked (the police) to leave so we wouldn’t have any interactions,” said Gary Matthews, the vice chancellor who oversees campus officers. “I think since the events at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Penn State and Syracuse, everyone is reassessing responses, and the need to respond, and our duty to protect property and make sure everyone is safe.”

Students stressed that they, too, wanted to avoid confrontation. Nonetheless, they set an 11 a.m. deadline for the administration to respond to their demand that they be allowed into the former Center for Library & Instructional Computing Services, commonly called CLICS. The library was one of three the university closed over the summer in response to steep cuts in state funding. It had traditionally been open 24 hours a day during finals week.

Shortly after 11 a.m., a group of perhaps 50 students were holding a vote in front of the library’s main entrance on whether they should force their way in. As they counted hands, other students, who had forced open a separate entrance, pushed open the front doors and students streamed inside.

Several students stressed that they were “reclaiming” the library and took pains to avoid the word “occupy” or a connection to the Occupy movement.

“This library was always a 24-hour library during finals,” said Samer Naji, vice president of external affairs for the Associated Students. “It’s two stories with a ton of study space. Students took it upon ourselves that we were going to reclaim the space. We’re paying tuition through the roof and (administrators) blow money all over the place.”

Eden White, a sophomore biochemistry major, was one of those who arrived early in the cold morning to sit outside the library in hopes of persuading officials to reopen it.

“I’m here to help reclaim CLICS,” she said, working on a laptop with a blanket wrapped around her jacketed shoulders. “I think we’re trying to get away from ‘occupy.’ It’s got kind of a negative connotation.”

Several of UCSD’s top administrators arrived just moments after the students entered the building.

Suresh Subramani, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the university is prepared to overlook the forced entry.

“It’s a moot point,” he said. “We were on our way over here with the keys to open it up.”

Subramani and other administrators spent more than an hour talking with student leaders after the break-in. He assured them that the university would not try to force them out and they told him and others that they have no intention of staying in the building beyond the end of finals.

A statement sent out on 12/5/11 from the students reclaiming CLICS:

“Hello Community,

“UCSD Student’s have RECLAIMED the Library known as CLICS located in Revelle College. The University shut it down earlier this year due to “budget cuts.” This has had a dramatic effect on all students and further illustrates the Universities Privatization. The school just placed a $1.3 Million Dollar [link*] installation on the Jacob’s School of Engineering [link*] but couldn’t afford to keep the Library open.”

“Students have spoken out and taken action into their own hands! They have reclaimed their library! But we need you support! We need our faculty and departments to stand in Solidarity with the Students, you all can come into the space and use it for office hours or help us by publicizing to other students that the space is open.

It is currently being operated/run by students. They are currently working on a set of demands and are taking suggestions!”

“CLICS will function as the center of our reclamation process in taking back our university against the budget cuts and privatization of our education. We need your help getting the word out about this action: please tell your students to study at CLICS and to participate in the action. Here are a few action items….”

“Action items:

Please publicize this to students and other Faculty that will also help us publicize

If you would like to hold office hours or review sessions within the space let us as soon as you can

If you want to hold your final there or want students to turn in their finals let us know

Please write a letter to the university supporting this action and demanding the University to meet our demands

If you can donate supplies, financially or food, please let us know as well.

Let us know if you have any ideas or suggestions or things you would like to see within the space.

More than anything we need your support and advice to sustain this movement.

What do you think?

Warning: require_once(/home/agitpropspace/agitpropspace.org/wp-content/themes/sight/footer.php): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/agitpropspace/agitpropspace.org/wp-includes/template.php on line 407